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Jan

Mavizon's Mavia 3G-Enabled Gizmo Plugs Into Your Car, Acts As A LoJack, Texts Your Family, Diagnoses Your Check Engine Light [Video]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Videos

Walking around CES Unveiled on the first day of CES 2011, I ran into a little company called Mavizon Tech, showcasing their product with a beautiful name Mavia. I you've never heard of Mavizon, don't feel bad - they don't have many consumer-facing products just yet, but it's all about to change when Mavia hits the market later this year.

What is Mavia? It's a little gizmo box that plugs into your car's diagnostics port and sits there, drawing the power from the aforementioned port. Inside the Mavia - a GPS module and a 3G radio that is able to broadcast a signal anywhere there is 3G reception (I forgot whether they use T-Mobile or AT&T, but it's one of those).

Jan

CES 2011: Deep Dive Preview Of The Sony Ericsson Xperia arc - Video Walkthrough And Details Galore

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Gingerbread 2.3, News, Sony Ericsson, Videos, Xperia Arc (Anzu, X12)

Last Updated: January 11th, 2011

Following on from their press release on Wednesday, Sony Ericsson invited the media this morning to a designated conference room at the Hard Rock Hotel for some play time with their newest Android device. We spent over an hour with the handset to get an idea of what to expect when it hits the market.

The reps there acknowledged the difficulties they had experienced with their previous Android handsets, and showed what appeared to be decisive commitment to putting those hold-ups behind them. With the Xperia arc (sic), Sony Ericsson has trumped its competition at CES with the first Gingerbread device to be announced since the Nexus S.

Jan

CES 2011: Hands-On With Motorola's Dual-Core Atrix 4G For AT&T: There's A Dock For That

Posted by Brian O'Toole in AT&T, Atrix 4G (Olympus), Motorola, News, Videos

At Motorola's booth today, we got a chance to play with the Atrix 4G - a dual-core HSPA+ equipped slate handset, sporting a whopping 1GB of RAM and packing a couple of notable features. Along with the laptop dock demoed in the video below, the Atrix 4G also has a media dock (called "HD dock") which allows you to connect it to a larger screen (and use the same WebTop desktop-like interface) as well as plug in a keyboard and a mouse. The Motorola rep also informed us of plans for regular charging and car docks, so it looks like wherever you may be, the Atrix will have a bespoke resting place.

Jan

Sony PlayStation Phone Given An In-Depth Review, Now All But Official

Posted by Josh Cooter in Gingerbread 2.3, News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

Last Updated: January 11th, 2011

Just days after Kaz Hirai teased the world with talk of Sony's future in smartphones, tablets, and the PlayStation brand (all without confirming or denying the existence of a PlayStation phone), Chinese site IT168 has posted an in-depth review of the engineering version that they managed to get ahold of. Not only is the PSP Phone very real; from the looks of it, the device is almost ready for prime time.

Before delving into the details, here are the specifications and features that we are working with:

Qualcomm Adreno 205
1GHz Snapdragon Processor
1,500 mAh battery
4" LCD display with 854 x 480 resolution
5MP autofocus camera with LED flash (720p video recording unconfirmed)
512 MB RAM
512 MB ROM
Micro SD slot
SIM Slot
Micro USB
Rear Mic for noise cancellation
Android 2.3

Hardware

The design of the PlayStation Phone is comparable to the form factor of the PSP go, so avid mobile gamers can rest assured that the hardware controls will blow traditional touch screen controls out of the water in terms of precision.

Jan

Videosurf Will Bring Video Recognition To Your Cell Phone; "It's Like Shazam, But For Video."

Posted by Brad Ganley in Applications, Apps/Games, News, Videos

With all the mind-blowing news coming in from CES 2011, it's easy to forget that interesting and innovative things are coming from other sources at the same time. Here is one of those sources.

A new service somewhat reminiscent of Shazam and Sound Hound has surfaced on our radar, but with one major distinction: this app does videos. Using proprietary algorithms and software (read: magic), newcomer Videosurf will not only help you identify what T.V. show or movie you're watching, but what episode you're looking at, summaries, actors, actor information, and all kinds of information you didn't know you were missing out on right there on your cell phone.

Jan

Hulu Plus Confirmed For Android 2.2

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, News

Having long been rumored, Hulu Plus for Android was finally confirmed during Samsung's press conference at CES. During the Keynote, Hulu's CEO Jason Kilar demoed the app running on the Samsung Galaxy S, announcing, for the first time, that the subscription service was being developed for Android.

Google and Hulu have not always seen eye-to-eye, so it was fortuitous that Samsung was able to mend the bridges and bring this amazing service to the Android platform.

Image courtesy of Gadgetsteria

According to Hulu's Blog, Hulu Plus will be available on select Android mobile phones (Android 2.2 and above) in coming months.

Jan

CES 2011: Hands-On With T-Mobile's Dual-Core HSPA+ Dell Streak 7 Android Tablet

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Dell, Devices By Manufacturer, News, Streak 7, Videos

At T-Mobile's press schmoozing session this evening, a few HSPA+ devices were available for the blogging masses to clench in their clammy hands. One in particular that we were keen to try was the Dell Streak 7, the new big brother of the original Dell Streak (Mini 5), announced earlier today. With the 7" tablet boasting a Tegra II dual-core processing unit, our interest was piqued, so we took a look in the video below:

As you can see, the performance fell short of the hype and anticipation that many of us felt with this CES's dual-core bonanza. It might be slightly hard to detect with the frame rate of the video recording, but scrolling still felt choppy despite the power contained within.

Jan

Huawei Ideos X5 HSPA+ Android Smartphone Officially Announced

Posted by Josh Cooter in Android OS, Huawei

Today, Huawei announced the Ideos X5, its latest addition to the smartphone line targeted at busy professionals whose focus is productivity and connectivity. The device boasts an ultra slim form factor, at just 11.4 millimeters thick, and ergonomic curves complemented by a brushed metal finish.

Other Specs:

3.8" 800x480 px TFT capacitive display
5MP camera with 720p HD video capturing capability, autofocus, and flash
HSPA+ compatible
WiFi 802.11n (most likely with b/g as well)
4GB onboard memory with expandable SD slot
Bluetooth 2.1, A-GPS, compass
1500 mAh battery

Huawei strives to provide constant connectivity with Facebook and Twitter applications as well as an office suite for business professionals, complete with Word and Excel for creation on-the-go.

Jan

CES 2011: Quick Hands-On With Verizon's Dual-Core 4G LTE Motorola Droid Bionic [Video]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Bionic, News, Verizon Wireless, Videos

The 4th and final new device that I got to demo today at Verizon's 4G LTE event and the one I am personally most excited about was the Motorola Droid Bionic, announced yesterday. The reason I liked it so much was, of course, the fact that the other 3 phones that were introduced on Verizon - LG Revolution, Samsung i510, and HTC Thunderbolt - are all single core, while the Droid Bionic packs 2 cores in a really impressive package. Check it out:

Dual-core 1GHz processor
512MB RAM
4.3" qHD display (960x540 px)
8MP camera
1.3MP front-facing camera
4G LTE
Android 2.2 "Froyo" with the toned down version of Motoblur, similar to Droid X
1600 mAh battery
HDMI output capable of 1080P
Skype video calling
Google instead of Bing (finally)

The Droid Bionic should be arriving in Q2 of 2011.

Jan

CES 2011: Quick Hands-On With Verizon's LG Revolution: 4G LTE In A Semi-Stock 4.3" Package

Posted by Brian O'Toole in LG, News, Revolution, Verizon Wireless, Videos

At Verizon's 4G event today, we got some quick demo time with LG's initial LTE offering, the Revolution. Sporting a trendy 4.3" display, the device is obviously geared towards content creation and consumption. Not only does it include a 720P-capable 5 MP camera on the back, it also makes a mark with it a 1.3 MP front facing camera for video calls.

Unfortunately, it only has a single-core processor, clocking in at 1 GHz with 512 MB RAM alongside, but that shouldn't stop it from being a fairly decent performer all around. Best of all, the version of Froyo that LG has chosen to ship the Revolution with looks relatively uncontaminated, and with merely a tinted status bar here and altered icon there, the changes seem fairly forgivable in the near-mandatory custom UI sphere of Android lately.